Thursday, July 19, 2007

Ninth Class

I have really enjoyed and valued this class. When I first looked at the syllabus on blackboard I was very worried and concerned about the course requirements. As the course progressed I became more and more comfortable. I've learned many things and am excited to bring these ideas to my classroom and some of my colleagues classrooms as well. Professor Luch did a wonderful job with so many of us on various ability levels. I liked how she valued everyone's knowledge and we used some student's expertise in areas of technology for class instruction. Thanks again experts! Congratulations to everyone, good luck in your future teaching, Rachel.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Eighth Class

I really liked exploring in the Inspiration Program. I used Kidspiration once years ago in a 1st grade classroom to create a word web. I think that the ability to freely explore in the program was helpful in understanding the program better. Since working this way with technology in this class I feel less intimidated with new technologies. (Of course having the safety of the New Paltz computers is also helpful!)
A teacher in my school actually did a presentation for parents and staff at the end of the school year last year to educate about cyberbullying. It truly is a growing problem for our students. My neice had her username and password stolen by a sister of a friend. She had used her friend's computer to post on her myspace account, and the screen saved her information and the sister (of her friend) took the information. To make a long story short the sister added some BAD things to her account and my neice had to erase everything from her account, change her password, and start fresh.
I liked what Jody said about managing technology not letting technology manage us. It is inevitable that technology will continue to grow in use and importance in the future. I hope that we can also adjust and maintain this technology so that we still control all aspects of our lives without being dictated by the technology present.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Seventh Class

I'm really excited about the ASSURE lesson plan that I am creating and I'm anxious to implement it this year with my second graders. Once I found the Virtual Manipulatives (Site posted on my FURL account) I wanted to try this type of lesson as a type of experimentation of their use. I can't wait to see what my students think of the program. I hope that this lesson will help them show 2-digit numbers in a variety of ways. Also I think that seeing tens and ones simultaneously as 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional objects will help them relate the actual base ten blocks with pictures of base ten blocks. This relating should help students with testing difficulties since often my students can create numbers using manipulatives but have difficulty identifying them from pictures.

Sixth Class

Smartboards here I come! That was a great experience working with the SmartBoard for my SuccessMaker PowerPoint presentation. It was rather easy to manipulate after I got comfortable and gained more confidence. Really you follow the same methods as using your desktop computer but instead of a mouse you use your finger. Double tapping on the screen still seems weird to me though! I enjoyed learning more about interactive white boards through Michelle's presentation. I'm interested to see and try some of the applications she spoke of like changing print to type, highlighting, and using the writing pen and eraser. My school district currently has a smartboard for each school and the elementary school will be getting another this year so I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to try these applications.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Fifth Class

Since we are working on our powerpoint presentations today and our bibliography slide has to be in APA format I thought I'd add some great sites for APA format that I got through a different class last semester. The first site I found was particularly helpful.
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPA.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Manipulating within the Powerpoint program is becoming easier and easier for me. I am getting excited about all the different possibilities the program has to offer (Backgrounds, Animations, etc.)

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Fourth Class

I am extremely frustrated with making my website. I am having big troubles with finding, downloading, and utilizing pictures. Just to let everyone know you can't use pictures from Microsoft Word or images saved in Paint. I hope that this becomes a bit easier to do as class goes on and I also hope that the website I plan to make through my school district is easier to do compared to this! I hope everyone else's website creation is going smoothly. Good Luck! Rachel

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Third Class

I am very interested in Intranet posting within schools where only people in the school community can see the postings. We do have the ability to create our own website through the school and I wonder if these sites are on an intranet or the internet. A collegue and I will hopefully be attempting to create a mathematics website for all students in our building grades K through 6 so I will definitely be discussing this with the technology crew. Our school has many technology resources such as two computer labs, multiple projectors, laptop carts, and multiple computers in each classroom so we are trying to better utilize these tools in our instruction. On another note I already have a base knowledge within powerpoint so I am enjoying experimenting with other unknown aspects of the program - WebQuest/Powerpoint here I come!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Second Class - Furl Account, Videos, Second Life, Social Networking

I was completely blown away when we discussed the lack of childrens/young adults control of their lives and learning. Imagine having a parent consult on registration of classes throughout your college career, attend classes or talk to college professors, or attend an interview! My parents made learning a priority and were concerned with my educational choices, goals, and quality but they didn't make and lead me through all of the occompanying descisions. How are we going to grow and develop into self-sustaining adults if everything is outlined, completed, and explained to us? How will our children raise their children? How will our society grow and prosper if we can't think, work, and create independently?
We started our furl accounts at http://furl.net/ Alanna helped us understand how to add our classmates to our blog sites and Michelle showed us how to add our classmates furl accounts to bloglines. I challenged myself and was actually able to add all our furl accounts to both my blog and bloglines. This was a great review of manipulating within blogs and bloglines sites.
At the end of class we discussed online video sources, second life - web life, and social networking on www.bebo.com, www.facebook.com, and www.myspace.com. Be careful finding appropriate videos on uncensored sites- try to use more relyable sites like www.unitedstreaming.com Second life is a virtual world that people can "live" in and interact with others. This world can be over powering and many people around the world have dimished their real world connections and interactions preferring this make believe online world. It was noted that these social sites are not censored, screened, or rated and can be dangerous and inappropriate.
Importantly mentioned in class was the fact that things that are posted on the web and/or in these social networking sites can affect future aspects of your life, will never really be deleted, and can be seen by anyone with just a few clicks of a mouse.

Monday, July 9, 2007

First Blogging Experience!

This is my first experience blogging. I'm interested in learning about all blogging has to offer. The first thing I want to do is link the site to start a blog account to remind myself for future reference: https://www.blogger.com/start I've heard a lot about blogging from friends especially through their myspace accounts.
I'm subscribed to a newsletter through TeacherPlanet.com that is e-mailed to my personal e-mail account. This newsletter is informative and offers monthly announcements, featured lessons and units, helpful websites, free and purchasable materials, humorous cartoons and inspirational stories, and more! I thought I'd link the site and see if it could be of use to anyone else in class. http://www.teacherplanet.com/ You can subscribe yourself at the website if interested.
Thanks, Rachel